Give the hotter cook a whirl. I don’t really use a thermometer, but I’m guessing it gets close to 280 or maybe even a bit more during the summer. I know most people like to stay in the 225-250 range, but I actually do like my barbecue cooked a little bit hotter. Sometimes, I’ve even done no water pan or empty water pan. With no water pan, you get this nice, fat-in-the-fire flavor that I like. But the clean-up is a bit more messy.
Yeah, I’ve gotten good results at around 275, and it doesn’t take 14 hours to get a good sized pork shoulder up to an internal temp of 190. More like 8-10 hours. Don’t have to mess with foil wrapping to get past the “stall” either.
Yeah, like I said above, for whatever reason, all my 8-9 pound pork shoulders finish in about 6-7 hours (probably closer to 7). I haven’t checked the internal temp of my smoker in many years, though, so it probably consistently runs around 275. Like I said, I generally smoke with all the vents open. Next time I smoke, I might check to get an idea. And, yeah, I’ve never needed to foil with a Boston Butt. That cut just practically cooks itself.
If you’re finishing 8-9 pound pork shoulders in about 6-7 hours your smoker temp must be pushing 300. Sounds like it’s working for you though, and no getting up at 4 am to get the smoker going like I used to! I bet you get a nice thick layer of tasty bark.
Yeah, I certainly wouldn’t be surprised. I don’t think I’ve ever checked the temp with the sand pan, but when I was using water and starting out, the WSM stayed at a constant 250-265 max. I also used a smaller chimney starter back then, and I pack the new one to the brim with coals, so there’s probably also a lot more heat being generated because of that.
But yeah, I get a nice bark, and the inside is still moist and juicy. When I have company over, I’ll take it to the “pulled” stage, but when I make it for myself, I actually prefer chopped pork, so I take it to something like the low 190s, but not far enough so it shreds, which for me happens at around 197. Then I let it rest for a bit and hit it with a cleaver. I personally prefer that texture of meat. I also use my judgement and poke at the meat and not just go by temperature by itself. The fork should slide in fairly easily, but not to the point where the meat just falls apart and shreds. I’ve seen people say to do chopped pork at temperatures like the high 170s and 180s, but that’s too firm for me for chopped pork. That’s more what I might take sliced barbecue to.
I also just recently took up smoking in my backyard. I started a similar thread a few months ago, which I am too lazy to go look for right now. I had been meaning to post an update, and since this thread’s here it seems like as good a place as any.
I got a Weber Smokey Mountain for my birthday in late March. After weeks of uncooperative weather (It seemed like every weekend during April was rainy around here), but eventually I tried a pork shoulder like many had suggested. All went well for the first four hours or so; it held a temperature around 250 or so. Then I noticed the temperature seemed to be dropping. I thought maybe I needed to add more fuel, so I added more coals, already lit in a chimney starter. I also decided to refill the water pan while I was at it. I wonder if that part was a mistake. I overfilled the pan and some water spilled out onto the coals, which I’m sure put some of them out. I opened up all the vents to try to get the temperature back up, but from that point on it was a struggle to get the temperature above 220, even with all the vents open. By 8 pm, after something around 10 hours in the smoker, and the internal temperature of the meat hadn’t budged in over an hour (I take it this is the dreaded “stall”), I was getting very hungry and threw in the towel. The meat was edible, but definitely hadn’t hadn’t achieved the tenderness I was hoping for. Maybe I could have gotten it there with more time, but I didn’t want to have dinner at midnight.
Yesterday for the Memorial Day holiday I gave it another go, this time ribs. This time the results were much better. I didn’t mess with the coals or water pan this time, and it held a temperature of around 250 the entire time, although it did seem to be dropping a bit at the very end. I left the ribs in a bit longer than the recommended 4 hours (partly due to the memory of the previous attempt), and basted with barbecue sauce during the last hour or so. The meat was absolutely falling off the bone. Perhaps a tad dry though, so maybe I didn’t need to leave them in quite as long as I did. But still quite good.
A good yet inexpensive accessory is an oven thermometer. Place it on the grate so you can peek inside the top vent with a flashlight to get a good temperature where it counts. Make sure you wipe it down after each use since it will get gunked up and difficult to read over time.
Congrats on the ribs! As for the pulled pork, did you use the Minion method? It’s really the only way to go for long BBQ times. Here’s a link that describes it (as mentioned, instead of all charcoal I use a mix of around 70% briquettes with 30% briquette-sized chunks of wood mixed in (for pork I like a mix of apple and hickory chunks).
You could have salvaged it. Just throw it in a 250 or 275 oven to finish. The pork takes up pretty much as much smoke as it will after a couple of hours.
No. That was actually another thing I forgot to mention. That was another thing I changed up on the second attempt. With the ribs I used the Minion method (even though they only require about half the time). With the pulled pork I didn’t.
Yep, good advice. I’ve had to do that once or twice in the past, when I used cheaper smokers and was not yet aware of the Minion method.